Biographical Sketch of W. H. Kirkland

W. H. Kirkland, who raised the first American flag in 1856 in the town of Tucson, was born in Petersburg, Virginia, July 12th, 1832, and emigrated to Arizona shortly after the Gadsden Purchase, eight or nine years before the organization of the Territory.

He and his wife were the first white couple married in Arizona, being married in Tucson May 26th, 1860. In 1863 and 1864, he spent a good deal of time around Walnut Grove mining and ranching, about which time he purchased the ranch located by Pauline Weaver, and there engaged in stock raising. Later he settled in the Salt River Valley, where Mrs. Wayne Ritter, his daughter, was born in Phoenix on August 15th, 1871. She was born in the second house which was built in the city of Phoenix. Kirkland died in Winkleman, Arizona, January 19th, 1911, at the age of 78 years, and was survived by a wife and seven children.